Adobe Creative Suite is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The latest version, Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3), was announced on March 27, 2007; it introduced Universal binaries for all major programs for the Apple Macintosh.

Adobe sells CS3 applications in six different combinations called "editions." Some editions began shipping on April 16, 2007, and Production Premium and Master Collection editions began shipping on July 2, 2007.

CS3 includes several programs, including Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks that were developed by Macromedia, a former rival acquired by Adobe in 2005.

An extra DVD is supplied with Arabic, Hebrew and North African versions of Adobe CS3 in Central European and Middle Eastern versions for language support.

Applications

Brief descriptions of the applications in the various Creative Suite editions:

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor (with significant vector graphics functionality).

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.

Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing (DTP) software application.

Adobe Acrobat is a software family dedicated to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF):

Adobe Acrobat Standard and Adobe Acrobat Professional, which allow the creation of PDF files

Adobe Reader, a free software application which allows the reading of PDF files

Adobe Flash is a software family dedicated to various Adobe multimedia technologies:

Adobe Flash Professional, a multimedia authoring program used to create web applications, games, movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices. It features support for vector and raster graphics, a scripting language called ActionScript and bi-directional streaming of audio and video.

Adobe Flash Player, a free software application which allows the playing of standalone Adobe Flash (SWF) multimedia files.

Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application.

Adobe Fireworks is a bitmap and vector graphics editor, aimed at web designers (with features such as: slices, the ability to add hotspots etc.).

Adobe Contribute is for editing the content of a website. It allows a wide variety of people within an organization to update web pages by reducing the amount of web design skills necessary for the process.

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems. It can be used in film and video post-production.

Adobe Premiere Pro is a real-time, timeline based video editing software application.

Adobe Soundbooth is a digital audio editor. Adobe has described it as being "in the spirit of Sound Edit 16 and Cool Edit 2000". Soundbooth is not replacing Adobe Audition, rather creating a product for creative professionals who do not specialize in audio.

Adobe Encore is a DVD authoring software tool produced by Adobe Systems and targeted at semi-professional video producers. Files are automatically transcoded to MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio. DVD menus can be created and edited in Adobe Photoshop using special layering techniques.

Adobe Bridge is an organizational program. Its primary purpose is to link the parts of the Creative Suite together using a format similar to the file browser found in previous versions of Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Version Cue enables users to easily track and manipulate file metadata, which is information about the history of computer files, such as the fact that one file is a new version of a related older file. Version Cue also automates the process of concertedly reviewing documents among groups of people.

Adobe Device Central's primary purpose is to integrate parts of the Creative Suite together to offer both professional and individual creative professionals, web designers, and mobile developers an easier way to preview and test Flash Lite, bitmap, web, and video content for mobile devices.

Adobe Acrobat Connect is used to create information and general presentations, online training materials, web conferencing, learning modules, and user desktop sharing. The product is completely Adobe Flash based. All meeting workspaces are organized into 'pods'; with each pod performing a specific role (i.e. chat, whiteboard, note, etc.). The recommended database for backend support is MS SQL.

Adobe Dynamic Link integrates After Effects with Premiere Pro and with Encore.

Adobe OnLocation (Windows only) is a direct-to-disk recording and monitoring software.

Adobe Ultra (Windows only) is a vector keying application. Ultra utilizes image analysis technology to produce high quality chroma key effects in less than ideal lighting environments. Ultra also includes virtual set technology, which allows the keying of a subject into a virtual 3D environment.

Editions

Below is a matrix of the applications that are bundled in each of the software suites:

Adobe dropped the following programs (included in CS2) from the CS3 software bundles:

Adobe GoLive (replaced by Adobe Dreamweaver)

Adobe Audition (replaced by Adobe Soundbooth)

Adobe ImageReady (replaced by Adobe Fireworks)

Adobe will continue to develop GoLive and Audition as standalone products. Adobe GoLive 9 was released as a standalone product on June 10, 2007. Adobe Audition 3 was announced as a standalone product on September 6, 2007.

Adobe Encore and Adobe OnLocation (formerly Serious Magic DV Rack HD2) are now included as part of Adobe Premiere Pro and will not be released as standalone products.

Adobe InCopy, an application closely integrated with Adobe InDesign, is also part of the Creative Suite family, but is not included in any CS3 edition. It can be ordered from Adobe, third party plug-in developers, or systems integrators.

Adobe has discontinued ImageReady and has replaced it with Fireworks, with some of ImageReady's features integrated into Photoshop.

Some Creative Suite programs use the Presto layout engine used in the Opera browser since version 7.0.Icons of the core CS3 programs lined up. The colors of the icons are reflected in each program's box.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Family of products intended for professional print, web, interactive and mobile designers.

The key difference between Design Premium and Design Standard is the addition of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, and Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 to the Premium version.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium includes the following stand-alone products:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Adobe InDesign CS3

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Family of products intended for professional print designers and print production professionals.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard includes the following stand-alone products:

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Adobe InDesign CS3

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Family of products intended for professional rich media and video post-production experts who create projects for film, video, broadcast, web, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and mobile devices.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium includes the following stand-alone software:

Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Adobe Soundbooth CS3

Adobe Encore CS3

Adobe OnLocation CS3 (Windows only)

Adobe Ultra CS3 (Windows only)

The legacy equivalent of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium is Adobe Production Studio.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Family of products intended for professional web designers and developers.

The addition of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe's 2D and 3D animation software for vector graphics, are the key differentiators between Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium includes the following stand-alone products:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3

Adobe Contribute CS3

Adobe Fireworks CS3

The closest legacy equivalent of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium is Macromedia Studio 8.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Family of products intended for professional web developers and coders. Its more advanced brother edition, Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium, includes Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and Adobe Illustrator CS3 for web designers who do more advanced visual design work.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard includes the following stand-alone products:

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3

Adobe Contribute CS3

Adobe Fireworks CS3

The closest legacy equivalent of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard is Macromedia Studio 8.

History

The Adobe Creative Suite 2 logo

Adobe Creative Suite was first released in 2003. The first two versions (CS and CS2) were available in two editions.

The Standard Edition included:

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Version Cue

Adobe Bridge

Design guide and training resources

The Premium Edition also included:

Adobe GoLive

Adobe Acrobat Professional

Adobe Dreamweaver (from Creative Suite version 2.3)

Production Studio

Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio (previously Adobe Video Collection) was a suite of programs for acquiring, editing, and distributing digital video and audio. The suite was available in standard and premium editions.

The Adobe Production Studio Premium edition consisted of:

Adobe After Effects Professional

Adobe Audition

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Encore DVD

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Dynamic Link (Not sold separately)

The Standard edition consisted of:

Adobe After Effects Standard

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Photoshop

In CS3, Adobe Production Studio became part of the Creative Suite family. The equivalent version for Production Studio Premium is the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium.

Macromedia Studio

Macromedia Studio was a suite of programs designed for web content creation designed and distributed by Macromedia. After Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia, Macromedia Studio 8 was replaced, modified, and integrated into two editions of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 family of software. The closest relatives of Macromedia Studio 8 are now called Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard.

Core applications from Macromedia Studio have been merged with CS3, including Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. Some Macromedia applications were absorbed into existing Adobe products, e. g. FreeHand has been replaced with Adobe Illustrator CS3. Director and ColdFusion are not part of Adobe Creative Suite and will only be available as standalone products. Four recent versions of Macromedia Studio released include:

Macromedia Studio MX Released 29th May 2002, internally it was version 6 and the first incarnation of the studio to use the "MX" suffix, which for marketing uses was a shorthand abbreviation that meant "Maximize". Studio MX included Dreamweaver, Flash, FreeHand, Fireworks and a developer edition of ColdFusion.

Macromedia Studio MX Plus Released 10th February 2003, sometimes referred to as MX 1.1. MX plus was a special edition release of MX that include Freehand MX (replacing Freehand 10), Contribute and DevNet Resource Kit Special Edition in addition to the existing MX suite of products.

Macromedia Studio MX 2004 Released 10th September 2003, despite its name, it is internally version 7. Studio MX 2004 included FreeHand along with updated versions of Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. An alternate version of Studio MX 2004 included Flash Professional.

Macromedia Studio 8 Released 13th September 2005, Studio 8 was the last version of Macromedia Studio. It comprised of Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Flash 8 Video Converter, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3 and FlashPaper.